Gritty cable shows such as "Hardcore Pawn" dramatize how inner-city pawnshops often serve the financially downtrodden and desperate.

But a newer segment of pawnbroker — the online counterpart to the better-known brick-and-mortar shop — is pushing to reach a wealthier market segment not normally associated with the industry.

"When people think of the pawnshops historically, they don't necessarily think of $100,000 pieces of jewelry," said George Souri, CEO of UltraPawn. "But wealthy people, like everybody else, like a good deal."

The Littleton, Colo., pawnbroker has about 20 items priced at more than $20,000 on a section of its website called UltraBling. They range from a Patek Philippe watch, listed at $22,400, to an 18-karat white-gold tennis bracelet with 29 diamonds weighing nearly 30 carats, available for $118,000.

The items are discounted 25 percent to 80 percent off what they might cost at retail, Souri said.

Although many land-based pawnshops will have a stock of high-end merchandise as well, the client base is where the distinction begins.

"For the average person who wants a pawn loan, it's easier, quicker and simpler to go to their local shop," said Tim Lanham, a longtime pawn-industry expert in Fort Collins, Colo. "(For) someone who wants discretion and a larger loan, perhaps $5,000 or more, an online pawn has some desirability."

To ensure quality, transactions are often limited in expense and type — for example, at PawnGo, nothing less than $500 and no plug-in items.

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"Ours is a different customer base entirely," said Todd Hills, CEO and founder of PawnGo in Centennial,Colo., which launched in 2009 as the first virtual pawnshop. "They are people used to being online, who bank, shop and live online. For them, it's a comfortable user experience."

And because online pawns generally have a lower interest rate — Lanham said it's the lack of overhead that comes with a storefront and associated employees — it's an attractive alternative to the higher-end pawn.

UltraPawn charges interest rates of 2 percent to 10 percent a month, and Souri said he works with a homebuilder who amusingly calls his Rolex watch an "ATM on his wrist."

When the loan on an item isn't repaid — or redeemed, in pawnbroker parlance — the collateral can be sold.

That can make for some good deals, especially if the item was secondhand to begin with, Souri said.

Katherine Esposito said she scoured some of Denver's finest jewelry stores — Tiffany & Co., John Atencio and Hyde Park in Cherry Creek — on an eight-month search for impressive diamond earrings.

An ad on the morning TV news show "Fox & Friends" brought her to UltraPawn, where she found a 12-carat pair of diamond earrings set in 18-karat white gold.

She spent $22,000, saving about $8,000 to $10,000 compared with local retail prices.

"I never thought I would buy at a pawnshop," she said, noting how she was hooked.

Still, there's a stigma associated with pawnbrokers — the industry works hard to wipe clean the long-ago image of shops in seedier parts of town, and hit TV shows such as "Pawn Stars" help in that regard — that sticks to both sides, real shop or virtual.

"Ultimately, it's the customer who has to decide the reputability of the business, whether online is as trustworthy as the store down the street or the next town over," Lanham said.

Said Hills: "That was the difficult challenge of the model, the trust. How do I trust that I'm not sending my valuable item into an Internet black hole?"

Then there's the question of regulation. In Colorado, municipalities often require fingerprints for each transaction. The intent is to assist police in tracking stolen items.

Digital signatures and electronic-identification verification supplants the photo ID and fingerprint, thanks to the nation's first Internet-based pawnshop ordinance, which Centennial passed in 2009. Littleton followed not long after.

And no one leaves the online shop cash-in-hand. It's sent only to a verifiable bank account. Pawned items are also reported to local police and recorded in a national database.

So where does all the stuff come from?

Simple: People flush with cash during the boom years bought up luxury items that they see as a ready source of cash after the economy turned, Souri said.

Also, business owners with impaired credit who would have trouble getting a loan otherwise would find an online loan easier.

"And pawn loans don't ruin your credit if you don't repay," said Shirley Widom, whose family has owned Pacific Jewelry & Loan in Aurora, Colo., since it began life in 1948 in downtown Denver.

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